Ostensibly
in today's verse the senior ascetic is expressing on behalf of all
the ascetics of the ashram their very sincere wish that the
Buddha-to-be should stay in their ashram. Ostensibly the old ascetic is saying
that they rejoiced when the ashram become as if full, or complete,
but now they are sad that it is becoming as if empty.

If
a reading is sought that opposes the surface meaning of wanting
fullness and fearing emptiness, that reading might point us towards
indifference in regard to either fullness or emptiness, or even towards
affirmation of both fullness and emptiness.

I
have observed before that Aśvaghoṣa seems to eschew philosophical
abstractions, or technical terms, like buddha-tā, the Buddha-nature,
and śūnya-tā, emptiness, preferring more indirect means and more
concrete means, and especially the means of similes and metaphors. So if we want to infer something from today's verse about Aśvaghoṣa's teaching on buddha-tā, the Buddha-nature, and śūnya-tā, emptiness, we had better get out our spades and start digging.

The
first and second stages of sitting-dhyāna, as Aśvaghoṣa describes
them, are full of joy. But that joy is described as born of
separateness, or born of solitude. And realization of the third and
fourth stages of sitting-dhyāna is described as dependent on a
decision to carry on up in such a way as to rise above joy towards
detachment and empty awareness. So sitting-meditation itself might in
some sense be described as coming and going of fullness and
emptiness.

Again,
the word āśrama, meaning an ashram or abode of ascetics, is from
the root √śram which means to make painful effort. So the ascetic
in today's verse, in comparing the human body to an ashram, or a
place where painful exertion is supposed to go on, points us back to
philosophical question number one:

Since
we have the buddha-nature already, since we have been living in the
truth since our birth, since we climbed up Bodhidharma's intention in our childhood, what is the point of tying our legs in a knot and subjecting ourselves now to
painful exertion?

Tapping
on a computer keyboard from the comfort of a swivel chair it is easy
to negate the ascetic impulse, as the Buddha-to-be has negated it in this Canto, on the
basis of reason.

But Aśvaghoṣa will relate at the end of BC Canto 12 how the
Buddha-to-be, notwithstanding powers of reasoning much more excellent
than anybody today could muster, decides to throw himself after all
into ascetic practice. And thus the Buddha-to-be suffers through ROKU-NEN TANZA

six years of upright sitting.

If
even the Buddha-to-be was like that, as Dogen asks us,

KONJIN
NANZO BENZEZARU

how
can people today not make effort?

In
conclusion, then, the simile in the 4th pāda, as I read
it, expresses a sincerity that is not to be dismissed so lightly as
the sentimental plea of an old ascetic who has become emotionally
attached to a shining young prince. A sentimental plea is what today's verse looks like on the surface. But Aśvaghoṣa's intention is always to
invite us to dig below the surface.

VOCABULARY

tvayi
(loc. sg.): you

āgate
= loc. sg. past. part ā- √ gam: to come

pūrṇaḥ
(nom. sg. m.): mfn. full

iva:
like, as if

āśramaḥ
(nom. sg.): m. ( √śram) , a hermitage , the abode of ascetics ,
the cell of a hermit or of retired saints or sages

√śram:
to become weary or tired ; to make effort , exert one's self (esp. in
performing acts of austerity) , labour in vain